Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, remains poised for re-election, according to a poll from the Siena College Research Institute, but Marc Molinaro, left, only lags behind him by 13 points. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo

Molinaro recalls Pataki as he barnstorms state in final days of campaign

ALBANY— The Republican candidate for governor is framing a new poll as a scene-setter for mid-1990’s history to repeat itself in a GOP upset come Tuesday.

A hoarse Marc Molinaro, whose weekend schedule included 16 stops statewide in two days, told a crowd of about 200 at a hotel near Albany he’s “not so much of an underdog.” He now lags behind the incumbent by 13 points, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s favorability at the lowest it’s been during his eight-year reign, according to the poll.

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Molinaro’s campaign said the numbers from Siena College Research Institute— a polling group the campaign has previously dismissed as part of the governor’s “corrupt rigged system" — are similar to polling for Republican Gov. George Pataki in the days leading up to his 1994 win over Gov. Mario Cuomo. Pataki beat Cuomo with 48 percent of the vote during a political period slanted toward Republicans that resulted in GOP midterm successes nationwide.

“2018 is not 1994, but 25 years ago a man you’ve barely heard of came to places he’d barely visited and he told you that you needed to believe again,” Molinaro said. "He said believe in our capacity to solve any problem. He told us to believe in our ability to confront any challenge. And he told you as I tell you today: believe in yourselves to take back and remake this state government.”

Cuomo remains poised for re-election, according to Siena, with a large advantage among downstate voters especially. Molinaro dismissed Cuomo’s financial advantage and strong New York City influence as reasons for a change in leadership.

“No human being should be able to raise the kind of money this governor has raised, and no human being should be able to run the way he has run, which is to ignore voters, and ignore people,” Molinaro said, referring to Cuomo’s absence from a recent gubernatorial debate in Albany.

Molinaro still did not weigh in on President Donald Trump. The Cuomo campaign has consistently referred to Molinaro to as “Trump’s mini-me.” He said only that the state deserves a governor who will “agitate, irritate and advocate for the federal government to the do the right thing.”

Cuomo was in Buffalo on Saturday and is campaigning in Westchester and Suffolk counties on Sunday. He spent most of a speech Sunday morning in Mount Kisco bashing the president.

“When you get down to this point in the campaign, my friends, the truth comes out and it gets very simple,” Cuomo said, calling Trump “desperate” and using “division” as a “diversion” in comments and tweets about immigration and the migrant caravan headed toward the United States.

Democrats in New York, for both state and congressional seats, have followed through on promises about marriage equality, paid family leave, gun laws, environmental policy and the tax code, Cuomo said, while Republicans “really have no argument to make to the people of this state or any state.”

“That’s why we’re going to win, because we are right,” Cuomo said.

Molinaro scheduled five rallies Sunday, ending in his hometown of Tivoli.